John Duval

John Duval's Latest Posts

Titleist fans, the long awaited day has finally arrived. The new 915 driver, fairways and hybrids have been launched, and they are sure to bring a smile to your face. It is well known that Titleist only introduces new clubs about every two years, focusing on measured improvements and quality rather than marketing and sales […]

The 2014 Ryder Cup is upon us, and our friends at SpreadEx.com have come up with a cool infographic to celebrate the matches at Gleneagles in Scotland. Below is a neat breakdown of both teams and their past performance. If you are like me and enjoy a few friendly wagers, this info may help you. […]

When I was a young man in the early 90s and started taking golf seriously, wooden headed drivers and fairway woods were already on the way out. I remember talking to a few holdouts that swore they would never let go of their beloved Ping Eye2 woods, and one friend in particular would not let […]

Back in 2007 while struggling with my putting I decided to take drastic measures and install a huge, weird-looking new putter grip called SuperStroke. It felt about as fat as a baseball bat, had a reverse taper design and it attached to the shaft of my putter using set screws, a couple of tap screws […]

Since 2009 when I started intothegrain.com I’ve had the good fortune of meeting many great people and making some life long friends. I’ve visited some wonderful places, played some of the nation’s best golf courses and got to play with some of the latest equipment and golf gadgets on the market. I love sharing these […]

About five years ago, MacGregor golf was sold to Golfsmith International Holdings. While I was skeptical, Golfsmith vowed to re-launch the brand and elevate it to become their flagship product. When the new clubs finally arrived about a year later I found myself very disappointed with the product they turned out. I wrote a post […]

Earlier this week TaylorMade adidas Golf (TMAG) announced that they are restructuring and closing the Plano, Texas headquarters for Adams Golf, which they purchased in 2012. Our friends at mygolfspy.com broke the story. Adams Golf currently employs about 180 people in Plano. In all, TMAG will reportedly cut about 15% of its global golf workforce. […]

Bubba Watson is a unique talent. He’s a throwback to the good ‘ol days of golf when every shot was curved left-to-right or right-to-left on purpose to attack pins and navigate doglegs. His distance and imagination have garnered him fans all over the world. But those who cover the PGA Tour every week sometimes see […]

When I saw the original concept for the Voice Caddy a few years ago at the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando, my first thought was “The world doesn’t need another golf GPS device,” but I was wrong. Several years have gone by and UComm Technology, the Korean company behind the Voice Caddy VC300 has improved […]

Last week Dick’s Sporting Goods, the nation’s largest retailer of Callaway and Taylor Made golf equipment, fired all of the PGA Professionals they employed in the golf department at over 560 stores across the nation. Dick’s tried to differentiate themselves from other retailers by employing a PGA professional in each store to improve the customer […]

The golf industry is no different than any other industry in that there is no shortage of copy-cats, corner cutters and imitators out there. Every major golf equipment manufacturer has had their products cloned, and anyone with a good idea better cash in fast because you can bet someone out there will try to copy […]

Over the past several years I’ve noticed a disturbing trend in golf coverage from television, print, internet and social media outlets. I acknowledge that it is partly my fault, but I refuse to apologize for it. Traditional print media is dying a slow death and they know it. For a long time, bloggers controlled the […]

There are lots of game improvement devices and swing analyzers out there these days, but Game Game is quickly separating itself from the crowd. Unlike many of the current swing contraptions and launch monitors out there, Game Golf is actually permitted by the rules of golf. The USGA recently approved Game Golf to be used […]

Bridgestone Golf is one of the more conservative companies in golf. They seem to know what they are good at, and they stick with it. By and large they release solid products, but don’t make waves around the golf world. Their most recent irons came out a few years ago without much fanfare. The J40 […]

Taylor Made adidas Golf (TMAG) has done it again. We’re used to seeing new clubs hit the market at several times during the year, but this time they’ve gone way beyond designing a new club – they’re invented a time machine! TMAG’s new time machine (aka – SLDR Mini Driver) takes us way back to […]

When the Golf Channel is shopping around for a venue to film their popular golf reality show The Big Break, they don’t settle for second best. In past seasons, the Big Break has been filmed at places like Kingsmill Resort, St. Andrews, Trump National, Reunion Resort, Disney World, Casa De Campo, Greenbriar and Indian Wells. […]

What do guns and golf have in common? The technology in many of the best rangefinders used on the golf course comes from rifle scopes and range finders made for hunting and military use. The latest offering from optics company Leupold has taken golf rangefinder technology to the limit with its new model – The […]

Most fans of the LPGA and golf in general know who Natalie Gulbis is. She’s probably made more headlines over the years with her swimsuit calendars than with her golf clubs, but she’s kept her playing status and cashed plenty of big checks over the years, which is no small feat on today’s LPGA Tour. […]

While the golf industry as a whole isn’t doing as well as in years past, 2014 is shaping up to be a decent year for new golf products. While many were underwhelmed with the new product launches at the PGA Show, that doesn’t mean there is nothing worth watching in the coming months. Here are […]

TaylorMade is making waves in the golf equipment market with their “Loft Up” message that relates to the popular SLDR driver. They also recently announced the new line of Tour Preferred irons, which should be very popular. Next up are the new Tour Preferred golf balls! The last two performance golf balls TaylorMade had to […]